Opinion Raid raj
Targeting of a political opponent on the eve of a crucial poll invites questions of the misuse of Central agencies
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The merits of the cases against Shivakumar are, for now, not the point in an episode that resurrects the spectres of the raid raj of the 1980s, when the party in government was known to deploy Central agencies to fix political rivals.
The timing of the income tax raids at various premises owned by Karnataka minister D.K. Shivakumar and his associates has raised questions about political motivation. Shivakumar has been in the spotlight ever since the Congress brought its Gujarat MLAs to a resort in the outskirts of Bengaluru last week — apparently in a bid to prevent possible poaching by the BJP’s political managers.
The Congress has claimed that the charges of tax evasion and unlisted investments are a ruse to harass Shivakumar, who has been one of the party’s crisis managers. The merits of the cases against Shivakumar are, for now, not the point in an episode that resurrects the spectres of the raid raj of the 1980s, when the party in government was known to deploy Central agencies to fix political rivals.
At the centre of the political drama is the Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat, scheduled for August 8. Six of the Congress MLAs have quit the party, three of them have joined the BJP, leaving the former party insecure about the loyalties of its legislators, and their vulnerability to overtures from the BJP. In fact, the conduct of both the Congress and the BJP in the run-up to the Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat has been unedifying.
The Congress’s herding of its Gujarat MLAs to a safe house in Karnataka, at a time when the state is reeling under floods, shows the party in unflattering light. The BJP’s exertions to expand its ranks by wooing legislators of rival parties reek of impatience and greed. In many ways, the Gujarat RS election is a throwback to the politics of the 1980s.
The Congress of that decade, while sitting on a brutal majority in the Lok Sabha, showed no remorse in splitting parties and making coalitions of convenience to form governments in the states, even at the cost of subverting the people’s verdict. The BJP must pause and reflect how its urge to form governments at all costs — in Goa, Manipur and Bihar — fares against its promise to be a party with a difference and to provide good governance.
Is the party acquiring the worst tendencies of the Congress? If the Congress in the ‘80s was accused of using Central agencies like the CBI, ED and the IT department to force political opponents to fall in line, the same charge could be hurled now at the BJP in Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, and now, Karnataka. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has denied any connection between the IT raids on Shivakumar and the Gujarat RS polls. But the BJP will have to do more to dispel the cloud of suspicion that has come to settle over its actions.
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